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Aldo Leopold

Aldo Leopold Quotes

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Famous Aldo Leopold Quotes

“There is, as yet, no sense of pride in the husbandry of wild plants and animals, no sense of shame in the proprietorship of a sick landscape. We tilt windmills in behalf of conservation in convention halls and editorial offices, but on the back forty we disclaim even owning a lance.”

AnimalLandPrideOfficeSickShamePlantLandscapeFortyHallsConventionsConservationBehalfEditorialsPlants And AnimalsTiltWindmills
Book:A Sand County Almanac, and Sketches Here and There
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“Our children are our signature to the roster of history; our land is merely the place our money was made. There is as yet no social stigma in the possession of a gullied farm, a wrecked forest, or a polluted stream, provided the dividends suffice to send the youngsters to college. Whatever ails the land, the government will fix it.”

ChildrenMadeGovernmentSocialLandCollegeOur ChildrenPossessionForestsStreamsFarmsStigmaSignaturesYoungstersDividendsRosters
Book:Round River
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“Bread and beauty grow best together. Their harmonious integration can make farming not only a business but an art; the land not only a food-factory but an instrument for self-expression, on which each can play music to his own choosing.”

ArtSelfPlayTogetherGrowsLandExpressionInstrumentsBreadFactoriesIntegrationFarmingHarmoniousSelf Expression
Book:The River of the Mother of God: and other Essays by Aldo Leopold
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“I have read many definitions of what is a conservationist, and written not a few myself, but I suspect that the best one is written not with a pen, but with an axe. It is a matter of what a man thinks about while chopping, or while deciding what to chop. A conservationist is one who is humbly aware that with each stroke he is writing his signature on the face of his land.”

ThinkingMenWritingMatterFacesWrittenLandDefinitionsSuspectsPensStrokesSignaturesChopping
Book:A Sand County Almanac, and Sketches Here and There
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“Every region should retain representative samples of its original or wilderness condition, to serve science as a sample of normality. Just as doctors must study healthy people to understand disease, so must the land sciences study the wilderness to understand disorders of the land-mechanism.”

PeopleShouldStudyLandConditionsHealthyDiseaseDoctorsOriginalsRegionsWildernessDisorderMechanismRepresentativesSampleNormality
Book:For the Health of the Land: Previously Unpublished Essays And Other Writings
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“In that year [1865] John Muir offered to buy from his brother ... a sanctuary for the wildflowers that had gladdened his youth. His brother declined to part with the land, but he could not suppress the idea: 1865 still stands in Wisconsin history as the birth-year of mercy for things natural, wild, and free.”

YearsStillsIdeasNaturalLandYouthBrotherBirthMercySanctuaryWisconsinWild And FreeWildflowers
Book:Aldo Leopold: A Sand County Almanac & Other Writings on Conservation and Ecology: (Library of America #238)
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“Conservation is getting nowhere because it is incompatible with our Abrahamic concept of land. We abuse land because we regard it as a commodity belonging to us. When we see land as a community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect. There is no other way for land to survive the impact of mechanized man, nor for us to reap from it the aesthetic harvest it is capable, under science, of contributing to culture”

MenWayMayUseCultureCommunityLandCapableConceptsAbuseRegardImpactBelongingAestheticCommodityConservationHarvestReapContributingLove And RespectLand Conservation
Book:A Sand County Almanac, and Sketches Here and There
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“Two things hold promise of improving those lights. One is to apply science to land-use. The other is to cultivate a love of country a little less spangled with stars, and a little more imbued with that respect for mother-earth - the lack of which is, to me, the outstanding attribute of the machine-age.”

LittlesTwoCountryUseLightAgeEarthMotherStarsLandPromiseMachinesTwo ThingsAttributesImprovingOutstandingMother EarthLand Use
Book:Aldo Leopold: A Sand County Almanac & Other Writings on Conservation and Ecology: (Library of America #238)
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“We abuse land because we regard it as a commodity belonging to us. When we see land as a community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect.”

MayUseNatureCommunityNaturalInspiringEnvironmentLandOceanRespectAbuseRegardGreenEnvironmentalCaringPreservesWildernessBelongingSustainabilityPollutionEcologyCommodityConservationPreservationNatural WorldOur EnvironmentWildlifeBeginningOur CommunityMother EarthNatural EnvironmentLove And RespectNature And EnvironmentSave Mother EarthNature LoveEarth And NatureNature ConservationGreen LivingWildlife ConservationEco FriendlyThe Wild NatureConservingInspiring NatureEnvironmental PollutionInspirational EnvironmentalEnergy ConservationGo GreenLand ConservationLove And NatureWhere You BelongEnvironmental SustainabilityLand UseWildlife And NatureConserving EnvironmentDeep EcologyUse And AbuseProtect NatureCommunity LivingCommunity Garden
Author:Aldo Leopold
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“The last word in ignorance is the man who says of an animal or plant, "What good is it?" If the land mechanism as a whole is good, then every part is good, whether we understand it or not. If the biota, in the course of aeons, has built something we like but do not understand, then who but a fool would discard seemingly useless parts? To keep every cog and wheel is the first precaution of intelligent tinkering.”

IfsMenFirstsWholeLastsCoursesAnimalLandIgnoranceFoolBuiltIntelligentPlantUselessWheelsMechanismLast WordsPrecautionCogsTinkeringLand Conservation
Book:Round River
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“One of the penalties of an ecological education is that one lives alone in a world of wounds. Much of the damage inflicted on land is quite invisible to laymen. An ecologist must either harden his shell and make believe that the consequences of science are none of his business, or he must be the doctor who sees the marks of death in a community that believes itself well and does not want to be told otherwise.”

WorldWantBelieveWellsDoeCommunityLandConsequenceDoctorsMarkWoundsInvisibleDamageShellsPenaltiesDoctor WhoEcologicalMake BelieveNature And EnvironmentLaymanLand Conservation
Book:Round River
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“This whole effort to rebuild and stabilize a countryside is not without its disappointments and mistakes... What matter though these temporary growing pains when one can cast his eye upon the hills and see hard-boiled farmers who have spent their lives destroying land now carrying water by hand to their new plantations”

MatterHardWholeHandsEyePainWaterEffortMistakeGrowingLandCastsDisappointmentHillsHis EyesTemporaryFarmersDestroyingWhat MattersCountrysidePlantationsGrowing Pains
Book:For the Health of the Land: Previously Unpublished Essays And Other Writings
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“All ethics so far evolved rest upon a single premise: that the individual is a member of a community of interdependent parts. . . The land ethic simply enlarges the boundaries of the community to include soils, waters, plants, and animals, or collectively: the land.”

IndividualWaterCommunityAnimalLandMembersEthicsPlantBoundariesSoilPremisesInterdependencePlants And Animals
Book:A Sand County Almanac: And Sketches Here and There
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“Ability to see the cultural value of wilderness boils down, in the last analysis, to a question of intellectual humility. The shallow-minded modern who has lost his rootage in the land assumes that he has already discovered what is important.”

ImportantLastsValuesLostAbilityModernLandHumilityIntellectualAssumingAnalysisWildernessShallowAbility To SeeIntellectual Humility
Book:A Sand County Almanac, and Sketches Here and There
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“Our tools are better than we are, and grow better faster than we do. They suffice to crack the atom, to command the tides, but they do not suffice for the oldest task in human history, to live on a piece of land without spoiling it.”

HumansGrowsPiecesLandToolsTasksCommandFasterCracksAtomsTidesHuman History
Book:Aldo Leopold: A Sand County Almanac & Other Writings on Conservation and Ecology: (Library of America #238)
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“A land ethic...reflects the existence of an ecological conscience, and this in turn reflects a conviction of individual responsibility for the health of the land. Health is the capacity of the land for self-renewal. Conservation is our effort to understand and preserve this capacity.”

SelfTurnsIndividualEffortExistenceResponsibilityLandEthicsConscienceCapacityConvictionPreservesConservationRenewalEcologicalIndividual ResponsibilityLand Conservation
Author:Aldo Leopold
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“When some remote ancestor of ours invented the shovel, he became a giver: He could plant a tree. And when the axe was invented, he became a taker: He could chop it down. Whoever owns land has thus assumed, whether he knows it or not, the divine functions of creating and destroying plants.”

KnowsTreeLandDivineCreatingFunctionPlantDestroyingAncestorGiverPlant A TreeShovels
Book:Aldo Leopold: A Sand County Almanac & Other Writings on Conservation and Ecology: (Library of America #238)
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“My favorite quote: The land ethic simply enlarges the boundaries of the community to include soils, waters, plants, and animals, or collectively: the land. In short, a land ethic changes the role of Homo sapiens from conqueror of the land-community to plain member and citizen of it. It implies respect for his fellow-members, and also respect for the community as such.”

WaterCommunityAnimalRolesLandCitizensMembersEthicsFellowsPlantMy FavoriteBoundariesSoilHomo SapiensConquerorPlants And Animals
Author:Aldo Leopold
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“Harmony with land is like harmony with a friend; you cannot cherish his right hand and chop off his left. That is to say, you cannot love game and hate predators; you cannot conserve the waters and waste the ranges; you cannot build the forest and mine the farm. The land is one organism.”

HandsHateGamesLeftWaterNatureLandMinesWasteHarmonyForestsRangeCherishFarmsOrganismsPredatorLand ConservationThe Love Of The Game
Book:Aldo Leopold: A Sand County Almanac & Other Writings on Conservation and Ecology: (Library of America #238)
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“Thus far we have considered the problem of conservation of land purely as an economic issue. A false front of exclusively economic determinism is so habitual to Americans in discussing public questions that one must speak in the language of compound interest to get a hearing.”

ProblemSpeakLanguageInterestIssuesEconomicLandFrontsRiversEnvironmentalHearingConservationCompoundsDiscussingHabitualDeterminismEconomic IssuesCompound Interest
Book:Aldo Leopold: A Sand County Almanac & Other Writings on Conservation and Ecology: (Library of America #238)
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